[Former classifications: 261; E.5.2.5]

The manuscript Palatino 319 was created in the mid-fourteenth century in Florence. It is made up of an uncommented version of the Comedy, which appears on two columns. At the conclusion of this manuscript can be found two Capitoli sulla Commedia: the first by Jacopo Alighieri, one of Dante’s sons, and the second by Bosone da Gubbio, a friend of Dante.

Illuminations marking the beginning of each of the three canticas complement the manuscript. The production of these illuminations has been attributed to the Florentine artist, Pacino di Bonagiunta, or to other illuminators from his circle. A historiated initial precedes each cantica: the first represents Dante, the second Caton d’Utique, and the third Christ. The elongated edges of the initials turn into the basis of the scenes corresponding to each of the three canticas situated in the lower margins: for Inferno, Dante is facing the three beasts; for Purgatory, Dante and Virgil are in the metaphorical boat of the poetic craft; and for Paradise, Dante and Beatrice are ascending to heaven.

The manuscript belonged to Piero del Nero, a scholar and politician from Florence, deceased in 1598, who left a note of possession on the f. 1r, « Di Piero del Nero 1591 », legible with the use of Wood’s lamp (Bertelli 2011, 376). Del Nero placed his collection of manuscripts at the disposal of the Accademia della Crusca for the examinations needed to produce the 1612 edition of the Italian language Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca (Enciclopedia dantesca 1970). Del Nero owned at least fourteen manuscripts of the Comedy (including the Palatino 319), also used for the publication of the Accademia’s printed edition of this work. In 1800, the Guadagni, a Florentine family who had acquired the manuscript, sold it to Gaetano Poggiali (Bertelli 2011, 376), a Livornese editor who used it for the publication of his edition of the Comedy. The manuscript thereafter came into the possession of the Biblioteca Palatina Lorenese, founded in Florence by Ferdinand III of Tuscany in 1790 and merged in 1861 with the Biblioteca Magliabechiana, which later became the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale of Florence.

Contents:

• 1r-23v, Inferno;
• 24r-46v, Purgatory;
• 47r-07r, Paradise;
• 70r-70v, Jacopo Alighieri, Capitolo sulla Commedia;
• 70v-71v, Bosone da Gubbio, Capitolo sulla Commedia.

Date: half of the fourteenth century.

Origin: Florence.

Colophon: f. 71v, « Finito libro referamus gratia cristo », with « mus » substituted by « tur » added in the top line spacing .

Digitization: https://archive.org/details/palatino-319

Manus file: https://manus.iccu.sbn.it/opac_SchedaScheda.php?ID=295369

Physical description

Support: parchment.

Composition: III + 71 + III'.

Dimensions: 344 x 248 mm.

Quires: 1-6, 8⁸, 7¹⁰, 9⁵.

Script: littera textualis.

Binding: modern, cardboard covered with green silk.

Decoration: The initials of each canto are pen-flourished and reach between 4 to 5 lines in height. The initials of each terzina are copied to the left of the column and colored yellow. Following f. 50r, they are also colored in red. The production of the illuminations marking the beginning of the three canticas has been attributed to Pacino di Bonagiunta, a Florentine artist of Giottesque training, or to illuminators from his circle. An historiated initial with a border representing the figure of Dante seated on a bench with an open book decorates the first folio of Inferno. The border extending from the initial serves as the basis for the scene representing Dante facing the three beasts, which occupies the inferior right side of the page. The lower margin of the page contains the Medici coat of arms, or, five balls in orle gules, in chief a larger one of the arms of France. The blazon is a later addition to the original decoration (Bertelli 2011, 378). Purgatory, on f. 24r, is decorated with an historiated initial of Caton, and the border extending from the initial serves as the basis for the scene depicting Dante and Virgil in the metaphorical boat of poetry, with four stars above them in the sky. Finally, Paradise, on f. 47r, is decorated with an historiated initial portraying Christ with a book in his hand. The border extending from the initial serves as the basis for the scene of Dante being carried by Beatrice to heaven.

Notes: following canto 20 of Paradise the rubrics are not completed.

Bibliography

Bertelli, Sandro. 2011. La tradizione della « Commedia » dai manoscritti al testo. II. I codici trecenteschi (oltre l’antica vulgata) conservati a Firenze. Florence: Olschki.

Enciclopedia dantesca. 1970. S.v. « Del Nero, Piero », by Berta Maracchi Biagiarelli. Rome: Istituto dell’Enciclopedia italiana. https://www.treccani.it/encicl... (accessed on 20/08/2021).

Author and date of the record: Alessio Marziali Peretti, 20/08/2021.

English translation: Sara Giguère.